Knowing what you want in a role: The single best way to grow and add value

There is undeniably a lot of advice around how to grow quickly in your role. I think there is only a single factor that matters the most - knowing what you want. Specifically, it’s important to know exactly what it is you are seeking to do / learn / experience when you are in a role. In fact, I believe this so deeply, it’s the only question I ask when interviewing people to join our company.

I know a lot of people who take one of these approaches:

• Look for a role they know how to do
• Explore what roles may be available to them
• Take a role that pays a lot
• Take a role with a big title

All of these approaches are suboptimal for a variety of reasons I won’t get into. Instead I’ll focus on why knowing what you want is so powerful.

There are 3 reasons why knowing what you want out of your role is so helpful:

1. You are more likely to be fulfilled in the role if you’re actually getting what you want
2. It allows you to be clear with your development goals to your manager(s)
3. You focus on the relevant tasks / opportunities within the role

The first one is pretty self-evident. You take a job that gives you what you want, you are going to be more fulfilled on a daily basis. Doesn’t mean you won’t still complain about the shitty things in the job at the back bar. Rather, that fundamentally you know you are working on the types of things you were seeking to experience. So you are fulfilling the core of the most important things you were seeking in a role. Now on the other hand, if you took a job for a different reason, and its shitty, it’s a great way to start designing your exit

This is the main reason it’s the only question I ask during interviews. I believe that if people are fulfilled doing their work, they are more likely to be motivated, and energetic in their work. Especially when things are tough. When building a start-up, this is potentially single biggest determinant to whether you are going to accelerate and iterate quickly - a motivated team. So I spend about 30 minutes really learning what the candidate wants out fo a role and why, and then share with them whether we can actually offer that.

Being clear with development goals is potentially the biggest reason to know what you want in a role. When I first started at LiveRamp, my own goals were simple: learn how to be a better manager of people, and learn how to interact with engineers. The reason I had these goals was I had previously worked on a startup that failed in large part due to ineffective communication on my part with my technical cofounders. So I knew exactly what I wanted in the role. I communicated this early and often to my manager, and so everything we worked on both within the context of my job, and additional responsibilities served these goals. The consequence of this, for me, was I grew into management / leadership responsibilities quickly, while many of my peers wanted a ‘Product Manager’ title, because it was perceived to be more desirable.

This is true for several people I know. The clearer they were with their manager about their development goals, the more likely it is that the manager makes decisions to make those opportunities available. The faster those people grew. Of course, the ask needs to be specific and possible in order for this to be effective. Given that, there is a very high likelihood of fast growth and appreciation from your manager.

Finally, it allows for focus from you. This is incredibly valuable to ensuring you are getting the best leverage for your time. You can say no to things that don’t fit the reasons you took the role, and double down on the things that fit. This focus is both great at ensuring you stay fulfilled (like in point 1), but more importantly, with focus comes clarity for how you will do your work. Using that lens allows you to more easily prioritize and work your day, which is a challenge for most of us.

Of course the company benefits a great deal when you are clear with your goals as well. This is an ideal professional outcome. When you focus, and are clear about the areas you want to invest in, the company can use your skills in those area to great leverage for the company. Of course, being fulfilled is a two way street as well, the more fulfilled you are, and less likely you are to leave, the better off the company is (usually!)

So, what is it that you want in your next role?